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Time Management Article: Comments

Kishore C.S. (December 2001)

Last fortnight I published the time management presentation slides I prepared on my site and also forwarded the same to people I know. The following are a few comments I received and I wanted to share them with you.

Before I volunteered to conduct this presentation I pondered on this question:

Am I the right authority to tell others about how they should manage their time?

I have attended a time management seminar myself in December 1998. It was a two day workshop conducted by a company by name Use Time Inc. The seminar is headed by Mr. Kichu Krishnan and assisted by Mr. Arul Dev. After attending the seminar, I followed the suggested method of the workshop and over last 3 years, I found there were many moments in my life I was glad that I attended the seminar. 

Over last three years, I have been able to do more in less time. I was able to do things I want to do than being driven by circumstances. I felt I was in more control of my life. As I started evaluating the results I published the lessons I learned in a series of articles. 

It is these simple lessons I learned and practiced that I wanted to share. Though I may not be an authority, by showing others how simple methods can help in better time management, I volunteered to make the presentation.

Though I am not an expert on these matters, whatever I conveyed is through the little practice I have in these matters.

Related Articles: Lessons learned in Time Management, Time Management, Importance of Writing down goals

It is natural to have some comments on this critical aspect of life. I have given the comments I have received on these slides below.

Comments from Venu Madhav

Kishore,

I have glanced  through your slides. they look pretty good. Personally, few points i do not agree. Many of us or at least some of us must be adopting To-do lists and assessing our time at work.

In one of the tips you had mentioned to attack the difficult problems first, which is contrary to my belief. I think easy ones should be tackled first which may not take hardly one or two hours. From the action list or To-Do list in your jargon, if the items shrunk faster one gets more confidence and gets motivated to do the difficult things faster.

Another thing which i want to bring up is organizing of the work table. In my experiences i found that people whose work table is clean are very good in organizing themselves. That is the first thing I learnt from my bosses over the years. That is one of the indications of good organization.

From my experiences and looking at fellow colleagues, I found that rework is another nasty thing which kills/consumes most of the precious time. As the deadlines don't change, rework makes people to overstay in the office and thus affecting family lives. So, an important thing one should adopt in his work is to do the things right in the first time and reduce rework. In engineering nature of work rework cannot be totally avoided but good efforts can lead to reduced rework.

Finally, I would like to bring out another issue regarding allocation of time. There are many jobs which I encounter very frequently which I am doing for the first time (may not be technical). Judging the timeframe for new activities is really a challenging task.

My response to above comments are:

Venu,
 
Thanks for your comments.
 
When I was giving presentation the same debate was raised:  Doing difficult tasks first may not be right.
 
I found that practice more motivating than ticking off easier tasks first.
 
Take a day with 8 small tasks and 2 big tasks:
 
Scenario 1:
Complete small tasks first
 
If I Complete 6 small tasks, sure it looks like I have completed 60% of work but the sheer fact that I have 2 big tasks which will take may be 2 hours is not done and there is LOT OF WORK ahead and I tend to postpone the inevitable and the task sometimes ends up going to next day.
End day result may be 8 small tasks completed but only 1 big task completed
 
Scenario 2:
Complete big tasks first
 
If I complete both big tasks by Lunch time, though only 2 tasks are completed, I am not scared anymore that I have LOT OF work ahead of me and I feel overjoyed about moving the big stones that I am motivated to complete all small tasks easily. Sometimes I end up doing more than my daily quota.  
End day results is 8 small tasks completed and also 2 big tasks completed.
 
That is why I recommended this strategy.
 
It depends on how you look at at.  There is 80/20 rule at work: You spend 20% of effort on 80% of tasks and spend 80% of effort on 20% of tasks.
 
Anyway, Each method has its advantages and one can adopt what they feel comfortable with. But My personal recommendation will be do "difficult tasks first."
 
Yes: A clean desk OR organized manner is one of the influencing factors in efficiency.
Regarding allocation of time, yes it is not always possible. But using this excuse don't stop putting it when you know it. :- )
 
Glad to note your comments. One more point I will like to add is I use a special kit for to do lists instead of scraps of paper which helped me for past 3 years.
 

My friend replied on the same

Noted your comments Kishore.

As you rightly said the methodology we adopt depends on the nature of the business. If i were a researcher, and i have 2 big tasks and 6 easy tasks your approach is OK. but if you are in an engineering company where we (Process/chemical  engineers) output (datasheets) is the starting point for another department. I give an example in my work arena.

I have two big tasks viz. technical clarifications to bankers (Citibank for Project finance), Making a Design basis for a new project. Both of these tasks may take a few hours to half a day for accomplishing.

At the same time i have few simple tasks like 1. Review minutes of meeting which i had attended. 2. Review and release of process datasheets of a ongoing project 3. Approval of purchase order for a new equipment after reviewing the technical specifications and few others.

All of these small tasks typically would be completed in a one or two hours time. The main point i would emphasize here is that all of these approvals would trigger the next event. Other department/disciplines are waiting for approval/review of these documents so that they can go ahead with their works. Typically reviewing and approval is only a bit of the ocean. It is just the beginning.

In this occasion if i start working on the big things i might get stuck on them. may be it may take a while and needs discussion with other departments. this in turn postpones the critical approval part which i know is straight forward. If i complete these smaller tasks and release them the project keeps going.

If i were doing my work for myself, irrespective of what approach i take will not matter. But if we are the input to other disciplines to proceed, we would not like to be the bottlenecks and slowdown the project.

though i do not completely agree, I believe people are being assessed by the deliverables rather than the magnitude of it. If my boss gives me ten things in a day and if i land up completing only 2 at the end of the day he would say i am not smart at work.

I again reiterate that my opinion represent on nature of work and may not be applicable to all of you folks. But this is what it is.

I will write back on other points if i have a difference of opinion.

Comments from Chakrapani

Hope you are doing fine. Went through your Time Management slides. Really good and very much inspiring. Of late after being allotted to multiple projects, I have developed the habit of having a To Do list and it really proves very effective. Nice to see the same thing in the form of presentation slides.

Conclusion

Time Management is important in every one's life. Only by experimenting with some methods suggested by experts in the field, we will realize the benefits and adopt them. Important thing to remember is 'practice'. Don't just read the tips and forget them. As you start practicing them you will find benefits. And Don't give up attempting continuous improvement in these methods. Everyone has to find steps that suit them and adopt them. As you understand from above comments view differ a lot but find a suitable method and stick to it. It is better than not doing anything at all. Wish you all the best in your efforts towards the same.

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